Organization Sails Schooner Into Port Jeff to Educate Public on L.I. Sound Preservation

A schooner belonging to a Connecticut-based environmental education group sailed into Port Jefferson Harbor this weekend to help highlight the need to protect the waters of the Long Island Sound.

To cap off the schooner’s trip to the village, state legislators from Connecticut and New York, including Rep. Tim Bishop, D-Southampton, will be at a conference at on Monday afternoon to discuss what the two states can do to preserve the Long Island Sound for future generations. At the conference, the Long Island Sound Study (LISS), an environmental group, will discuss their SoundVision Action Plan, a two-year plan for the restoration and preservation of Sound.

Organizers said that in addition to the meetings, kiosks will be set up to provide information about the Long Island Sound and the SoundVision Action Plan.

The schooner is expected to set sail for Bridgeport, CT after the trip to Port Jefferson, arriving there on Aug. 15. The schooner will continue to traverse the Sound for the rest of the summer, coming back to Long Island to visit Hempstead Harbor on Aug. 30. Unique among all its stops this year, in Port Jefferson there will be public sailing trips for those who have pre-registered.

Last year in November, the to announce the 5th Annual Long Island Sound Futures Fund. The $2.5 million fund granted money to 38 new projects centered around the Long Island Sound during a check presentation ceremony and luncheon at the .

The LISS’s SoundVision Action Plan contains four major components, according to it’s website. They consist of protecting clean water to achieve a healthy Sound; creating safe and thriving places for all Sound creatures; building Long Island Sound communities that work; and investing in an economically vibrant Long Island Sound.

The plan was created by business, municipal, environmental, civic and academic organizations from around the Long Island Sound that are members of the LISS’s advisory committee.

The conference will take place at 3 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 8, at the dock in Harborfront Park, just east of and the . (In case of inclement weather, the press conference will be held in the Wayfarer Room of the Port Jefferson Village Center.)